2. amps-preamps
  3. 1198192413

Poor Man's Ferrari?

Starving artist with very intermittent income...non-audiophile-spouse is the breadwinner of the household. Intermittent-income-earner has eye on refurbished Mark Levinson No. 27 amps and No. 26 preamps on ebay which frequently show up at attainable-but-stretching-it prices. Are the potential audio world related pitfalls here as formidable as those oft heard horror stories about the blue collar guy who sinks a year's pay into a 1982 Ferrari 308 or is this sort of purchase a worthwhile goal for somebody on a really tight budget?
lg1

Showing 2 responses by reubent

reubent
6,935 posts
 
Lgl,

I don't know that speaker, but if it's an older vintage JBL, I don't think you would need huge amounts of power to drive them. For well under $1000 you could get a nice Plinius Integrated amp or a Portal Panache. If you want to try tubes, go for something like the TAD 60 or Prima Luna's. I'll bet any of the above would sound great and save you a bunch of cash. I don't know about the Portal, but I believe most of the Plinius's have a phono stage built-in.

Enjoy,

TIC
reubent
6,935 posts
 
Baranyi,

The issue with the Farrari story is that the guy stretched his budget to BUY the car and now can't afford to maintain it. The poster is asking if it would be the same issue with the MLs.

Lgl,

If I were on a tight budget, I would not buy the ML stuff. Depending on the speakers you plan to use, I would buy one of the many great integrated amps that are available today for a very decent price.

What are the speakers and source components you plan to use? What are you using today for amp/pre-amp?

Enjoy,

TIC
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